PREPARING TO TALK: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, left, talks with former chairman of the California Air Resources Board Robert Sawyer, center, and former Executive Director Catherine Witherspoon while waiting to testify before the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Friday.

AIRING CONCERNS: Former executive director of the California Air Resources Board, Catherine Witherspoon, at podium, testifies before the Assembly Natural Resources Committee at the Capitol on Friday. At left is Robert Sawyer, ousted as chairman of the board.

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger portrays himself as a global environmental leader, but that image was tarnished Friday as two former state air pollution officials testified about an administration they said is working to weaken global warming initiatives.

Schwarzenegger’s top aides have meddled in the day-to-day affairs of the state Air Resources Board, compromising its independence and integrity even as the Republican governor was traveling the world promoting the state’s landmark global warming law, according to its former chairman, Robert Sawyer, and past executive director Catherine Witherspoon.

“To say it was schizophrenic is to be kind. It was absolutely appalling,” Witherspoon testified Friday before the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. “Never before has a governor interfered so much.”

Her testimony came nearly two weeks after Schwarzenegger unexpectedly fired Sawyer, saying the panel needed new leadership to navigate the complex implementation of the 2006 global warming law. Witherspoon resigned July 2 in protest.

Their accounts Friday painted an unflattering portrait of political infighting between key officials in the governor’s office, lawmakers and the air board. They said the governor did not meet once with the air board’s chairman during Sawyer’s 18-month tenure, that his staff issued orders to a board that is supposed to be independent and science-based, and issued at least one directive to award a competitive taxpayer grant to an automotive company.

Missing from the four-hour hearing were the Schwarzenegger aides Sawyer said were behind the offensive and inappropriate contact with the board in the past six months. Republican lawmakers also skipped the hearing.

The administration instead sent a deputy and a former undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Eileen Tutt and Dan Skopec, both of whom complained that Witherspoon and Sawyer had mischaracterized the “coordinating role” of the governor’s office. Skopec said administration officials were concerned Sawyer tried to rush global warming initiatives without a full analysis of their economic impact.

“The characterizations that were made deserve to be in the fiction section of any bookstore,” said Skopec, who until June 29 oversaw global warming policy at the state EPA.

Democrats said neither Skopec nor Tutt could answer for the governor’s aides. Several expressed frustration that Schwarzenegger was not being accountable to the public.

“It demonstrates a lack of respect for the House that authored AB32,” said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles. “I was hoping we could have one hearing on this issue and deal with it. I think the committee is going to want to dig more and more into this issue.”

Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said Democrats were engaging in “a political drill” that would not solve any problems. Schwarzenegger this week nominated former state Resources Secretary Mary Nichols as the board’s new chairwoman. Her nomination requires approval from the state Senate.

Fueling the public personnel dispute is a yearlong philosophical debate between the governor and Democrats in the Legislature over how best to implement the 2006 global warming law.

Democrats wrote the law with a clear directive that the air board focus on regulations to cap greenhouse gases from the state’s major industries. But the governor has sought to speed up a provision in the law that allows the board to study a market approach in which companies could trade, buy and sell carbon credits.

The law requires California to reduce its greenhouse gases by about 25 percent by 2020.

“The fundamental underlying issue is the tension between the Legislature about what tools we should use,” Skopec said. “We recognize there needs to be a myriad of tools.”

Among the allegations Friday were that the governor’s office demanded that Sawyer fire Witherspoon, instructed the board to limit regulations on global warming and lobbied for a competitive grant to Tesla Motors. He said he refused to follow those orders.

“It seems to me I was being too independent and not carrying out the wishes of the governor’s staff and that was why I was fired,” Sawyer said. “It really comes down to the chief of staff controlling the Air Resources Board.”

Witherspoon, a 22-year employee, described what she said was unprecedented pressure from a governor’s office to sway the board on pending air pollution and toxin rules on behalf of industry.

To restore the board’s autonomy, Hancock said she would craft legislation giving board members a fixed term similar those on the California Coastal Commission. Air board members currently serve at the pleasure of the governor.

Others also suggested the board needed more members with scientific expertise, that the legislature be involved in appointments, and that communication between the board and the executive branch be made public.

“The responsibility is so great and the oversight so important that representatives appointed by the Assembly and Senate should sit at the table,” said Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, who served on the coastal commission from 1997 to 2004.

However, administration aides were cool to the idea.

“Term appointments will dramatically change how the board works,” Tutt said. “I think this notion of independence is closely tied to leadership. There were leadership issues at the Air Resources Board.”

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